Nasdaq Inc at Barclays Global Financial Services Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Maybe just take it off. Over the last several years, Nasdaq has been leaning into the technology part of the business, increasingly pivoting away from being a pure exchange. Can you talk a bit about this journey, which you've really spearheaded? Where do you Nasdaq moving towards in the future as well?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. Maybe let's just talk about Adenza a little bit. And so the strategic fit, it's increasingly clear all the time as we kind of go through earnings calls, learn more about the business. But there was a pretty strong reaction from the Street. So maybe what do you think was initially most misunderstood that drove that reaction?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Right. Well, let's unpack that a little bit. So maybe thinking about the cross-sell opportunity between Nasdaq's legacy product set and Calypso and Axiom. How are you going after this with the most natural areas of overlap for Nasdaq that perhaps didn't exist for Adenza on its own?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : You mentioned Verafin, maybe we'll touch on that for a moment. So you continue to sign new Tier 1, 2 banks. Maybe talk a little bit about the challenges of going after this market segment, how Nasdaq is starting to overcome them, maybe comment if you could on the current pipeline?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : On GenAI, you mentioned the client ROI. What about for Nasdaq. So I think you've recently indicated the rollout is expected to be done around the third quarter. So what are the implications for the company? Is this an upsell? Does it make the value prop more compelling? Is it stickier? How does it impact the bottom line?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Okay. And where else across the business might there be opportunities to deploy AI capabilities? And to what extent have you -- cost saves, revenue drivers -- here? How should we be thinking about that? And what's the time frame?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. Maybe moving over to your Capital Access Platforms business. I think everybody's always curious to hear your view on the IPO pipeline. The markets are currently pricing in a number of Fed cuts over the next 12 months, which could ease financial conditions. So what can you tell us about the state of the IPO market today? How does the pipeline look? To what extent could perhaps the election result in IPOs getting delayed to 2025? I guess we're coming quite close to maybe you have a pretty near-term view there. And what other macroeconomic factors should we be paying attention to here?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Got it. Some of your other businesses under that umbrella, maybe Workforce Solutions. So your IR and ESG solutions business clearly been somewhat impacted by the current IPO cycle. What would your expectations be here with more healthy and open IPO markets in 2025? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 / 12:15PM, NDAQ.OQ - Nasdaq Inc at Barclays Global Financial Services Conference

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : What about on the analyst side, can you talk about what you've been seeing there? What does the current asset manager appetite look like for those kinds of products? And any other similar kind of impacts? Or what's kind of your near medium-term looks?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. So maybe separately on the index side. So you're clearly benefiting from the popularity of the [QQQs], the underlying performance of many of its constituents. But I think earlier this year, you mentioned 30% of your index AUM comes from indices other than the Nasdaq 100 franchise. So talk a little bit about what else the company is doing here? And how do you see your overall index franchise evolving over, say, the next five years?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Maybe I want to pivot into sort of your market services and exchange business, but kind of tying the two in, we've seen a real rise in the trading of cash settled index options. What are you seeing on your end? How are you thinking about kind of developing growth in the NDX contract? What are your kind of ambitions there?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. So moving to the exchange businesses more specifically. So maybe a question, high level. How do you think about petition in the Exchange business, particularly in the US, how do you think about the trade-offs between market error, fee rates? What are your thoughts?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Got it. Can you talk a little bit about your Nordics exchanges? I feel like once a year, you must get asked like, hey, why not -- these businesses, which is a hard no from you guys. Maybe talk about the value of owning that business where you have more meaningful share, what it kind of brings --

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. Maybe moving now to capital allocation. So you're currently ahead of your what was your original target for deleveraging post Adenza densa. Any updated thoughts on getting below your leverage targets? How does this -- some more into do buybacks? What is sort of the thoughts around the trade-offs? And the near term while you're in losses of leveraging, how should we all be kind of thinking about this?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : So with maybe a little bit of room on the delevering side, it's clearly a priority, but what are your thoughts on further M&A, maybe kind of tied us into sort of your broader vision for Nasdaq. So maybe not immediate M&A opportunities but maybe -- as well, what other kind of capabilities are -- to the company?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Got it. Maybe kind of coming back to the exchange business, I meant to ask you about this. Can you talk a bit about where you are in your cloud journey? You moved a couple of exchanges into the cloud. We talked about this in the context of AI earlier, top line versus cost save opportunities. How do you think about that piece as well? Where is the company in the journey? And similarly, like how do you expect that to unfold over the next five years? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 / 12:15PM, NDAQ.OQ - Nasdaq Inc at Barclays Global Financial Services Conference

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Maybe I'll ask you one last question kind of on the exchange business as well. Maybe I'll tie two into one. So in terms of the IPO pipeline, potentially more active 2025, how should we think about that translating into things like on-exchange activity, trading activity, not just the listings business? And then longer term, I think a lot of investors view like cash equities versus options a bit differently, options being like relatively less mature with a longer runway. Would you agree? How do you think options growth looks longer term versus cash equities? What are your thoughts?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. Well, with that, we're just out of time. Adena, thank you so much for being here. What a pleasure to have you. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 / 12:15PM, NDAQ.OQ - Nasdaq Inc at Barclays Global Financial Services Conference